Let's face it — stuffing is the real star of the Thanksgiving meal. Whether simply prepared with just celery and onions or meticulously peppered with the best oysters and sausage, everyone wants at least two helpings of the side dish. We asked a few star chefs to dish on their own stellar stuffings. Here's how they make their hot stuff for the holiday (plus some recipes to help you plan your menu).

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Bobby Flay

Bobby Flay

What's Bobby Flay's secret to stuffing? "Celery, onion, and garlic are all classic ingredients found in classic American stuffing. I add a Latin note with the addition of spicy chorizo and some goat cheese because I love it and it goes really well with wild rice," says Flay. "It may not be classic, but it's delicious."

Emeril Lagasse

Emeril Lagasse

What's Emeril Lagasse's go-to stuffing? The larger-than-life chef sticks to his southern sensibility by making spoonbread, which is more of a savory bread pudding. He explains, "Not much needs to be added to this luscious, moist spoonbread — it is delicious simply with green onions and cheese as an accent. But your imagination can run wild without much risk."

Any special tips? "Add an abundant herb or another of your favorite ingredients."

Bobby Flay

What's Bobby Flay's secret to stuffing? "Celery, onion, and garlic are all classic ingredients found in classic American stuffing. I add a Latin note with the addition of spicy chorizo and some goat cheese because I love it and it goes really well with wild rice," says Flay. "It may not be classic, but it's delicious."

Emeril Lagasse

What's Emeril Lagasse's go-to stuffing? The larger-than-life chef sticks to his southern sensibility by making spoonbread, which is more of a savory bread pudding. He explains, "Not much needs to be added to this luscious, moist spoonbread — it is delicious simply with green onions and cheese as an accent. But your imagination can run wild without much risk."

Any special tips? "Add an abundant herb or another of your favorite ingredients."

Alex Guarnaschelli

What's this Chopped judge's key to stuffing? Vegetables. "[The recipe below] is a simple Thanksgiving stuffing I like because it's vegetable heavy and because there are a lot of varied textures. The apples are somewhat al dente while the squash are tender. The bread and herbs add nice toasted and grassy flavors while the onions and celery add those classic Thanksgiving flavors.

Any special tips? "You can make this vegetarian by omitting the pork sausage and replacing the chicken stock with water."

Carla Hall

What's Carla's can't-beat stuffing? As a real southern girl, she starts with flourless cornbread that's "full of fat." Her choice ingredients are turkey sausage and dried cherries. "I make my own turkey sausage, which has a number of spices and a bit of cognac." She whips it up with sautéed onions and celery sprinkled with poultry seasoning, which she incorporates into her turkey stock. "I bake [my stuffing], so I guess that makes it a dressing instead of a stuffing, huh?" Whether it's really a stuffing or a dressing doesn't matter. All that does matter is that it gets made. "The stuffing takes center stage on my Thanksgiving plate!" Hall says.

Any special tips? Hall warns not to use sweet cornbread. "Southerners generally do not like sweet cornbread," she explains. "We like everything else sweet — tea, rice, desserts — but not our cornbread!"

Tom Colicchio

What's the trick to Tom Colicchio's top stuff? It's no surprise that this Top Chef judge, veteran chef, and restauranteur likes his meat. For his Thankgiving stuffing, Colicchio takes simple breakfast sausage and combines it with a variety of finely chopped veggies — fennel, carrots, celery, leeks, and onion — and tops it off with rich foie gras.

Ted Allen

What's this Chopped host's stuffing secret? "If you look at the food magazines you'll always see two turkeys," Allen explained at the New York Wine & Food Festival. "One that's Morrocan-spiced craziness, and another that's just butter, salt, and pepper. I fall on the butter side. I insist in always having a classic sage/butter/onion stuffing with the turkey liver chopped up in it. It's all I care about and the most important thing on the table."

Any special tips? "I take the turkey liver and I chop it very finely and sauté it with the onions. No one can tell it's in there — not [even] the children. It just adds body, depth, and richness — even in a giant thing of stuffing it's present, but it's not overwhelming."

Guy Fieri

What's Guy's go-to way to make stuffing? The Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives star sticks to his Italian roots. (Remember he pronounces his name Fee-Eh-Ri.) Looking to Italy for inspiration, Fieri combines focaccia bread, pepperoni, and sun-dried tomato in his alternative stuffing.

Robert Irvine

What's Robert Irvine's rockin' stuffing mix? "I make it with with bread, carameilzed onions, apples, oranges, thyme, sage, tumeric, chicken stock, and mix it all together," Irvine said over desserts at the New York Wine & Food Festival's SWEET. "I put lots of butter on top of it as you bake it. Why? Because butter absorbs its fat when its heated and it dissovles into whatever its going into. It's a lot more fun." As far as the role of the fruit, Irvine says, "Apples and oranges give not only fragrance, but also moisture."

Any special tips? "We used to stuff it in the bird, but it's not considered healthy, so now we bake it in a casserole dish."

Fabio Viviani

How does a chef from Italy make his stuffing? According to Viviani, while living and working in Los Angeles, he spent Thanksgiving at William Shatner's Hollywood home. The chef says Captain Kirk likes his stuffing Fabio-style — cornbread and Italian sausage pumped up with a mélange of eggplant, bell peppers, and zucchini. The kicker? Heavy cream and grated Parmigiano cheese. Beam us over to Shatner's house, Scotty!